▪ I. fracture, n.
(ˈfræktjʊər)
Also 6 fractour.
[a. Fr. fracture, ad. L. fractūra, f. fract- ppl. stem of frangĕre to break.]
1. The action of breaking or fact of being broken; breakage; spec. in Surg. (the earliest use), the breaking of a bone, cartilage, etc.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 B j, Ye must begyn the lygature at the vlcerate party, in ledynge it towarde the hole partye, as Hyppocrates wylleth in the fractour of bones. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 38 Without any great fracture of the more stable and fixed parts of Nature. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xiv. (1840) 241 The shock of the air, which the fracture in the clouds made. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. iv. (ed. 3) 33 Time is requisite for producing the fracture of the ice. 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. (1879) II. 39 Fracture of the sterno-costal cartilages is a rare accident. |
| fig. 1842 Ld. Cockburn Jrnl. I. 315 Preparations have begun to be made for..fracture of the Church. |
2. a. The result of breaking; a crack, division, split;
† a broken part, a splinter.
| 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. §18 (1653) 71 Their Fractures were so many, they knew not which Religion to chuse if they should turne Christians. 1651 Jer. Taylor Holy Dying iv. §8 (1727) 177 Reconcile the fractures of his family. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes i. v. 16 Besides, the losse of his Launce, though it stuck emblematically on his sides, yet the fractures went to his heart. 1798 W. Clubbe Omnium 33 He got off his box, and went to splicing the fractures [of the harness]. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles v. vi, O'er chasms he pass'd, where fractures wide Craved wary eye and ample stride. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 29 No appearances of fracture are visible in the hills. 1876 J. S. Brewer Eng. Stud. ii. (1881) 78 They admitted no such fracture in the chain of our political existence. |
b. Surg. For
comminuted,
compound,
simple fracture, see those words.
| 1525 tr. Brunswick's Surg. G iiij, If the fracture be lytell it shall be cured like y⊇ contusyon aforesayd. 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 306/2 Whether it be a wounde or a Fracture. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Repentance vi, Fractures well cur'd make us more strong. 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 161 Fractures of the Nose, Cheek-bones..fasten again in twenty or twenty-four days. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 593 The art of reducing fractures. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 443/1 In one [bone] the fracture had not united. 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 11 The fracture was a simple one. |
| fig. 1859 Holland Gold F. vi. 98 Old fractures of character that refuse to unite. |
3. The characteristic appearance of the fresh surface in a mineral, when broken irregularly by the blow of a hammer. More fully,
surface of fracture.
| 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I, Sparkling in its fracture like sugar. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 2 The fracture of which is of a dark colour. 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil, i. iii. 47 The rock at once splits with a clean fracture. 1831 Brewster Optics xii. 101 The two surfaces of fracture were absolutely black. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iii. 65 It breaks with a resinous fracture. |
† 4. = fraction 5.
Obs.—1| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 230 Forasmuch as alwayes an whole Year..is not the subject of the Question..but sometimes Parts or Fractures of the whole are useful. |
5. Phonology. The euphonic substitution of a diphthong for a simple vowel, owing to the influence of a following consonant (in
OE. h,
l,
r); the diphthong so produced.
| 1891 A. L. Mayhew O.E. Phonol. §81 Short eo corresponds to Germ. e, as the result of fracture before final h. Ibid. §84 eo = io the fracture of Germ. i before h + cons. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
fracture-bed,
fracture-bedstead; (of fracture in the earth's crust):
fracture-line,
fracture-system,
fracture-zone;
fracture-surface (
= sense 3).
| 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 102/1 *Fracture Beds. |
| Ibid. 102/2 *Fracture Bedstead. |
| 1925 J. Joly Surface-Hist. Earth viii. 140 The long rift valley of South Australia, mainly meridional in direction, as well as meridionally-directed *fracture-lines along the eastern side of that continent. |
| 1805–17 R. Jameson Char. Min. (ed. 3) 135 The *fracture-surfaces or planes thus exposed. |
| 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 214/2 Rectilinear and regularly intersecting *fracture-systems. 1965 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. (ed. 2) xxvi. 939 By far the most astonishing structures of the East Pacific Rise are the E–W fracture zones which have sliced the Rise into long crustal slabs. |
▪ II. fracture, v. (
ˈfræktjʊə(r))
[f. prec. n.] 1. a. trans. To cause a fracture in,
esp. a bone, etc.; to break the continuity of; to crack.
| [1612–1794 see the ppl. adj.] 1803 M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) II. 134, I fell upon a large round timber and fractured two ribs. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 132 Before our secondary strata were formed, those of older date..were fractured and contorted. 1858 Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., Hydrost. 7 A liability of bursting or fracturing some parts of the machine might arise. 1859 W. Collins Q. of Hearts I. ii. 42 She would..fracture her skull with the pony. |
b. To impress, excite, amuse greatly.
U.S. slang.| 1946 H. Brown Sound of Hunting ii. 116 This guy Muller fractures me. 1951 M. Shulman Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1953) 41 We're a riot, hey. We play all kinds of funny stuff. We fracture the people. 1955 L. Feather Encycl. Jazz (1956) x. 346 Fracture, impress, excite, amuse. 1966 Crescendo Aug. 20/2, I know he fractured you the same as he did me. 1970 H. E. Roberts Third Ear 7/1 Fracture v., to make one laugh. |
2. intr. for refl. To suffer fracture; to break.
| 18.. Science IV. No. 16. 5 (Cent.) The implements..are of sandstone [or] quartzite, neither of which fractures properly when subjected to heat. |
3. Phonology. (
trans.) To subject to fracture.
| 1889 Ellis E.E. Pronunc. v. 496 The peculiar manner of fracturing the vowels in the A-, A{p}, æ, E-, EA{p}, O{p} words by prefixing an accented (ee) or (ii) and reducing the vowel itself to indistinct ({uda}). |
Hence
ˈfractured ppl. a.;
ˈfracturing vbl. n. and ppl. a.| 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 149 Nothing cureth a fractured bone so much as rest. a 1763 Shenstone Economy iii. 38 Behold his chair, whose fractur'd seat infirm An aged cushion hides. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 104 That mass of fractured and sinking country. 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 285 The sudden application of convulsive and fracturing efforts. 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxx. (1849) 350 The part which originally had a north pole acquires a south pole at the fractured end. 1886 A. Winchell Walks & Talks Geol. Field 221 Much fracturing of the crust must have resulted. |